a lot like love
by Jessica L. Pearson
Summary: au; Harvey and Donna's teenage children have their own agenda.


_**I don't have time for another fic but here one is. Harvey and Donna both have teenage children and they come up with a plan. If you like it, please review so I know whether it's worth continuing or not. I'm so busy and I don't want to waste any time on something that no one will like.**_

* * *

The music vibrates off of the walls of Harvey's condo with a sound that he has _never_ allowed to play quite like this but he's making an exception for a certain pair of redheads who have been an intricate part of his life for years. He paces himself, the beat of it making his skin crawl with annoyance even though he paints a smile on his face. He tries not to think too much of it; after all, it is Chelsea's 15th birthday which only comes once in a lifetime.

"This music is horrid," Donna comments as she comes up beside him.

He laughs in the bellows of his throat, "I can't believe I'm allowing this."

"I'll let Chelsea know that it's a testament to how much you really like her," the redhead replies, "you know, in case she ever forgets."

"I know she was sad that her dad couldn't make it," Harvey replies without commitment.

Donna offers him a faint smile, "unfortunately pilots don't get to take days off."

"He's missing out on a great party. Lots of teenagers dancing."

"That sounded like an eleven on the creeper scale," she teases.

Harvey laughs a little and reaches out for her sleeve, pulling her with him when he steps backwards. They both disappear into his bedroom out of view, only appearing about a minute later on the balcony outside of the living room window. Chelsea watches them interact with narrowed eyes - the way they laugh, how her mom reaches out and brushes her fingers over his forearm in a way that looks severely intimate - until Theo breaks her concentration as he slides up beside her.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Theo mumbles through the music.

"What are they doing? They look so," Chelsea trails off in contemplation but can't find the right word.

"Happy?" Theo supplies. Chelsea nods absently in agreement. "He always looks happy when he's with your mom. He only smiles like that on two occasions and that's one of them."

"Hey," Kendall interrupts with an elbow to Chelsea's side, "is your mom and Theo's dad dating?"

Chelsea laughs in response, seemingly yet unintentional in sync with Harvey and Donna's laughter outside, "no." _But why the hell aren't they?_ She thinks.

"He's her boss," Theo supplies dismissively with a wave of the hand in their direction. He doesn't even want to think about his dad in a romantic situation. It's gross. Not that Theo thinks his dad doesn't deserve a little bit of release, he'd just rather not think about it. "It isn't like that."

It gets silent for a moment between them, the sound of the music beating against their ear drums, when Chelsea suddenly says, "but it could be."

Theo narrows his gaze at her in response, stares at her in confusion for a moment, but when he slides his gaze back to their respective parents it clicks for him; he wonders why he hasn't seen it all along.

Harvey and Donna sit dangerously close outside, eyes focused on only each other for a moment before they press their shoulders together and look at the phone in his hand like they're a couple of teenagers - _boy, if the kids only knew the half of it_.

* * *

Theo watches them with careful eyes, gauging their movements and the way that they dance around each other with a certain amount of efficiency that makes it look like they've been doing it for a long time. For a moment, Theo thinks that there's a possibility that they're doing it on purpose, being very careful and very sure not to touch one another. He wonders if they ever accidentally touch one another and halt in their movements to look at each other, to size each other up as their minds wonder to the realms of possibility.

Theo gets a sharp elbow to the ribs that prompts him to suck in his breath and sharply shift his gaze from the pair to the culprit. He glares at Chelsea who just returns a pointed look at him. They both still in a stalemate until she ushers him along with his hands.

On the other side of the room, Donna slides two fingers through the hair around her face in an attempt brush it out of her eyes. Her gaze catches Harvey's and they both smirk. She lightly shakes her head as he picks up a stack of red solo cups, pulling a face at the mess while she presses her hands to hips.

"What?" Donna tests the waters.

"Nothing," Harvey presses his tongue in his cheek, "you."

"What about me?"

He nudges her calf with the toe of his shoe, "you look like a hot mess."

"A hot mess? Really?" Donna asks, lifting her eyebrows at him accusingly, "Do you even know what that means?"

"I know how to use _Google_," he replies.

She tosses a genuine smile in his direction but turns on her heel to move away from him. He watches her with an ease that is so familiar that it doesn't even make her shiver beneath his gaze anymore. At first it was a gaze of steel, so intent and eager that she had to second guess his intentions. But that was years ago by now.

"Hey," she says suddenly from the kitchen; he follows her path, "thanks for letting us have the party over here. Your apartment is so much bigger than ours."

"This place better be spotless by the time you leave," he counters. The smile threatening the corners of his mouth betrays him though.

"Mom," Chelsea says as she hops to a stop between the living room and the kitchen, "I'm starving. Can we get some pizza?"

"We can grab some on the way home," Donna answers with a shrug.

Harvey lightly shakes his head, "nonsense. We can order pizza and watch a movie or something."

"We'll go pick it up down the street," Theo offers.

Harvey laughs, "you're getting pretty ballsy, kid. What makes you think I'd let you go down the street by yourself at this time of night?"

"I come home from school by myself," Theo reasons.

"There's still light out," Harvey points out.

Harvey's narrowed gaze loosens when Donna's fingers touch his forearm, "just let them. If they have any trouble, they can call us."

Harvey's gaze snaps to Donna and he almost melts underneath her softened features; instead, his lips part and his tongue slides over them, "how are they going to do that if they can't even get to their phone?"

"Harvey," she replies forcefully.

"Donna," he replies. He quirks an eyebrow and it's a stare down. One that he ultimately knows she will win just because he doesn't like to deal with her wrath. His lips curl in annoyance, "fine."

Donna smirks in triumph at Harvey before turning her head to look at their younger counterparts, "you two stick together."

* * *

Chelsea is approximately three steps behind Theo, presumably distracted by the chill of the night air and the smell of freedom. Okay, not exactly freedom but there is a different feeling in being on the street at 11am without her mom standing over her shoulder. The air smells sweeter and the concrete feels more welcoming, but the air is a little colder. She jumps a little at the sound of a car back firing in the distance and she steps foward eagerly, reaching for the back of Theo's shirt for comfort.

"Theo," she practically whines, "slow down."

"Put those long legs to good use," he chastises, "keep up."

"You're making me nervous," she retorts.

"Me? You're getting distracted by every little thing in sight. Just try to stay on task."

She huffs in a very Donna-like manner, "if you walk slower it'll give them more time alone together and maybe they'll, you know."

"That's gross," Theo counters as he comes to a halt, "I don't want to think about our parents doing _that_."

"Oh my god, ew," Chelsea gags, "I just meant they'd realize how perfect they are for each other."

"Do you think they're never alone together?"

"Ugh," Chelsea grunts, "well, you know, glass walls and kids - are they ever really alone?"

"I guess not," Theo shrugs, turning on his heel to proceed towards the pizzeria, "but do you really think they're just suddenly going to look at each other and notice whatever we think is between them?"

"You heard Kendall. They look like a couple. Hell, we are at your house on a Saturday night for _my_ birthday party. Do you think there isn't something between them?"

"How about this: _**you ask your mom and I'll ask my dad**_ then we'll compare notes," he says, flashing her a smile.

Chelsea wants to slap the smile off of his face but she doesn't. Instead she just tightens her fingers around his shirt to stay within arms length. "Like they're going to tell us if they're in love with the other."

"Maybe they will, you don't know," Theo points out.

Chelsea laughs, "don't be so naive."

* * *

"Rachel," Donna says as the bathroom door swings closed behind her, her heels slapping against the tile as Donna checks every stall to make sure that they're alone, "I need to ask you a question."

"Okay," Rachel replies slowly.

Donna stops right in front of Rachel, dips her chin and looks her directly in the eye, "I think my daughter might be dating Harvey's son."

"So?" Rachel replies immediately. Donna flashes her a look that makes Rachel study her hard for a few moments. "Oh. _Oh_. Oh - why do you think that?"

"Because we let them go get the pizza Saturday night and they were gone for a really long time," Donna explains. Rachel furrows her eyebrows. Donna plays stupid, like she doesn't understand the question that Rachel is asking without actually saying it out loud. "What am I going to do?"

"Why can't Chelsea and Theo date?" Rachel presses.

Donna looks at her pointedly, "you know why."

"No I don't," Rachel plays coy.

"Because Harvey's my boss," the redhead states like it's the most obvious thing in the world, "things don't need to be complicated between us."

"Isn't it?"

Donna gapes for a moment before she recovers, "no."

* * *

Rachel sits on the couch in Donna's living room with a glass of red wine in hand, swirling it to keep the alcohol poised and ready. Chelsea is curled into a chair, face turned towards the television and watching something on MTV as Donna sips on her own glass of wine. Donna always finds Rachel to be her harshest critic when it comes to meals that she makes but she knows that she needs to branch out. After that dinner party she had a few years ago, she's almost scared to make anything for even her parents to try.

Chelsea's dad will be in town for one evening and he said that he wanted to talk to them both about something important so Donna scrambled to throw something together to see if her cooking had improved. Rachel was lying when she said it was good, Donna knew, but she appreciated her friend for trying. Maybe Donna would just order something and not care about impressing her ex-husband; after all, they've been divorced for almost 14 years.

Chelsea notices Rachel staring at her out of the corner of her and she slowly shifts her gaze to her mom's friend. Donna's phone vibrates on the coffee table and she answers it immediately when Harvey's name lights up on screen. Donna slips out while pressing her phone to her ear and disappears down the hallway into her bedroom.

"What?" Chelsea presses.

"I know what you're up to," Rachel replies. Chelsea stares at her blankly as Rachel moves to the corner of the couch closest to her chair. Chelsea sits up a little straighter, wondering what exactly Rachel's though process is. And if Rachel's really figured it out, she's really not ready for a speech. Rachel grins, dips her chin downward, "and I want in."

"You want in?" Chelsea repeats slowly, like a parrot.

"Your mom thinks that you're dating Theo but I know what's really going on."

Chelsea quirks an eyebrow, "what's going on?"

"You're trying to get your mom and Harvey together," Rachel replies like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, yeah," Chelsea finally acknowledges with a shrug, "that. It's no big deal. It probably won't even work."

"Do you have a plan?"

Chelsea lightly shakes her head. She didn't really want this line of questioning. "Not really. Theo and I were just talking about whether it was a good idea or not."

"It's a big risk," Rachel replies decidedly. Rachel decides to leave out all of the risks like how their professional side is always a factor, but she thinks that they'd be happy together. She sees how they are when they're with each other and she thinks there's a lot of potential there. "_But_ I think it'll be worth it."

* * *

Harvey had prepared himself for a lot of things over the years but nothing had ever prepared him for fatherhood. Granted, he didn't have months to prepare or the opportunity to pick out a baby name and think about all of the kid's features before it entered the world. That would have been too traditional, too easy - no, he became a father in the blink of an eye when a 7 year old boy showed up at his front door with a half-assed letter in way of explanation like they were directions given to him by the manufacturer.

The letter had been pages and pages filled with a bunch of nonsense that he couldn't really care about. All he had cared about for the better part of 36 hours was the fact that Donna had finally agreed that she would go on 1 date with him (it had only taken approximately 5 years to coax her, give or take a year), but that was all shot to hell the moment a black haired version of his miniature self showed up. There was no denying that this Theo kid was his; he didn't even need a paternity test.

(But, because he's Harvey Specter and he's very much _not_ an idiot, he got one anyway.)

He was in shock for hours (more like months) and called Donna in a panic. She answered, voice filled with a disappointment that he quickly learned he never wanted directed towards him again, with an observation blatantly passed in the air between them; _**"you're not coming, are you?"**_He had planned on telling her the truth right then, but he couldn't. Not after she seemed so sure that he was just flaking on her.

He suspected over the years that she pieced the puzzle together without his help, but she'd never asked and he'd never told her. Being a dad isn't what he'd expected, especially one to a kid who had just lost his mom. Harvey understood that Theo's mom was the only parent the kid had ever known, not by Harvey's choice, but Theo had been strong like he'd understood all along what was coming. Harvey had often times wonder if maybe Theo had known and that's what made all the difference.

That didn't keep Harvey from feeling guilty for the years of Theo's life that he had missed. But Theo had inherited a few of his traits without his guidance, and Theo was direct enough that they moved passed the absence from each other's lives much sooner than Harvey had expected. Harvey was silently proud about that, but he knew that he lacked in the area of telling his kid how proud of him he is.

Harvey had been working on it a lot more recently, even though Theo didn't really need his help because the kid is one of the good ones. Harvey _is_ proud but he doesn't say it nearly as much as he should. Theo's only 15 years old but he's already on the varsity baseball team and is a great saxophone player in the band, but there's a lot of things Harvey knows.

Most importantly, he knows that he never could have done any of it without Donna.

* * *

"She didn't," Theo replies through gritted teeth into the microphone by his mouth. The television echoes with the release of bullets from the barrel of the gun as Theo navigates his character through the tall grass. He hears similar sounds reverberate through the headset as Chelsea says_I'm serious! Rachel wants to help us hook them up._

Theo laughs but his laughter cuts off almost immediately as the saturation on his screen lightens to almost no color at all. He was not going to let some little shit kill him without a fight. His finger rapid fires the trigger on his controller as he throws a hail mary grenade before dying anyway.

"So, what did she tell you we should do?"

_She suggested that we try to get them together more outside of work._

He spawns somewhere by Chelsea's character and he melees her playfully; she screeches an annoying _hey!_ that rings in his ears, "how are we supposed to do that?"

_I don't fucking know!_ Chelsea practically yells before she screams and her own character is blown to pieces. Theo hears Donna chastise her about choosing her words more carefully for the briefest of moments and he can practically hear the eye roll that he knows follows.

He clenches his teeth and his machine gun goes wild, taking out a few enemies before he's knifed in the back. In the 3 seconds it takes to spawn, he comes up with a plan. He smirks and leans back on his mattress as the screen fades to black and the match comes to a close.

"I think I have an idea," he finally says. On the other end, Chelsea keeps the information that her mom thinks they might be dating to herself.

* * *

"Jesus Christ, Harvey," Donna snaps as she nearly jumps out of her skin, "what the hell?"

He chuckles as he sits on her desk, hands planted deep into his pockets, "I need you to do me a favor."

"Ugh," she groans, "don't you think I do enough for you?"

"It's a big one," he replies, lifting an eyebrow skeptically.

Donna turns her body slightly, looking around before she leans closer to him like they have a deep, dark secret they want to keep to themselves, "what are you going to do for me?"

He stares at her for a moment, replying barely above a whisper, "do I need to remind you that I just let your daughter have her birthday party at my apartment?"

"You had a great time at the party," she reminds him.

"Only because I was with you."

"Are you coming on to me?" She teases.

"In your wildest dreams," he counters. "About this favor," he starts, "I need it to be under the radar. It's really important. This could spell promotion when we're done, and I need your help big time."

"Anything," she replies seriously.

He lightly shakes his head, "you're going to be kicking yourself when you hear what you agreed to."

"Try me."

He teeters with a smirk but decides against it, "I need you to be my date to this dinner thing. I need someone who can make me look good and there isn't anyone I trust to do that more than you."

"You're such an idiot," she says through a laugh as she lightly shakes her head.


End file.
